Just to keep your expectations in check - I work for a major games company in the UK as a C++ programmer and make 25k pounds/year($36k USD). US salaries are an abnormality.

$35K is what a decent developer in India would make. So, your UK seems too low.

Much of the games industry is incredibly low-paying. I felt fairly fortunate to have worked in my 20s for a good game company (where I was paid OK, learned a ton, and we eventually had an exit to Sierra), but I feel like most of my peers at other companies were working for terribly low pay and often under poor management.

GDP per capita in India is $1,498.87 though

My first job when I graduated outside of London was 30k. You are seriously underpaid.

Was your first job in the games industry?

Web dev.

As a web developer I frequently get offers for 50k+ in UK you are seriously underpaid

I only see 50k+ offers in London though, and I have no intentions of moving to London. I also don't think it's entirely fair to be comparing web developers to C++, I would say I'm an advanced C++ programmer but I would need to learn how to do web development from scratch, it's not like I can pick up a web development job and just get on with it.

Writing advanced C++ code is more difficult than writing node.js code for sure imo. So having a /2 salary for the most difficult option is meh. I have also had these offers from companies outside of London (don't know about rural areas OK). I think you should research a bit because I really think you are taken advantage of mate.

I'm still in college, and and an Eastern European country (where the average wage is around 550$). And I still make > 20k USD per year. So yeah, you are underpaid.

That only shows that you are being paid extremely well, not that I am paid poorly. To say that I am underpaid you would have to say - compared to what? To people doing jobs that have absolutely no interest to me? I like my job, I genuinely enjoy it. The money is enough to allow me to live very comfortably. If I lived in London, it would have been a different discussion - but out here, it's not bad at all.

If you don't mind saying, what sort of area in the UK do you live in, where 25k pounds/year is a good salary?

North east. My partner makes 30k(as a web developer, no less) so together we can easily afford to rent a 4-bedroom house, have 2 cars and save enough to get a mortgage soon. On top of that having a job that I really enjoy is just icing on the cake, really not complaining.

Refreshing attitude! Nicely put. Midlands here, and while I always want more 'stuff', reality is I'm quite steady. Still, happy to try new projects a few times a year just in case.

Got it, thanks.

$120k in just salary is common for a regular developer with 3 years experience here. Not even SV